Childbirth Self-Efficacy Inventory: psychometric testing of the Spanish version

This paper is a report of a study of the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Childbirth Self-efficacy Inventory.

Enhancing the confidence of women in their ability to cope with pain in labour is a key element of effective childbirth education programs. The Childbirth Self-efficacy Inventory is a suitable instrument for testing hypotheses about the development of self-efficacy for childbirth. Analysing its psychometric properties in the light of Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory is relevant for the validation of the instrument.

Translation and back-translation of the questionnaire took place in 2002 using a pilot sample of 12 women. The study was conducted using a sample of 146 childbearing women recruited from different national healthcare centres in Spain during the last 6 months of 2003. The psychometric study was carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

Principal components analysis supported the ability of the Self-Efficacy Inventory to distinguish between outcome and self-efficacy expectancies. Internal Consistency Reliability of the Inventory was found adequate. Previous knowledge was identified as the most important factor influencing the confidence of a woman to coping with labour.

Results are consistent with previous findings, and contribute to give support to the reliability and validity of the Inventory. The findings provide an additional and useful insight into practical ways of enhancing a woman's confidence to coping with childbirth: self-efficacy can be strengthened through persuasion by healthcare professionals, childbirth educators, and family and friends who offer support to the pregnant woman.